A query for gnomi, gryphonrose, and other grammarians:

[xochitl42]

Pulled from a CNN web article on the Large Hadron Collider:

The ILC will collide together electrons and positrons (fundamental particles with no constituent parts), enabling physicists to fully explore the kind of brain-bruising questions that would keep even Einstein up at night. Ummm...."collide" is not a transitive verb, even in UK usage (I

Comments

[gnomi]

The American Heritage Dictionary (3rd edition, since that's the one I have here at work, p. 373) says:
collide intr.v. -lided, -liding, -lides. 1. To come together with violent, direct impact. 2. To meet in opposition; conflict: "When truths collide, compromise becomes the first casualty" (Henry A. Kissinger). [Latin collidere : com-, com- + laedere, to strike.]

I would've gone with "electrons and positions will collide..."

[lexman8]

I would have said "will smash electrons and positrons together." "Smash" sounds a little too slangy, but the machine is called an "atom smasher," after all.

As far as transitive/instansitive verbs are concerned, the one I really hate is "impact," which has crept into business-speak in the place of "will have an impact on." As in the sentence: "We hope that the new ad campaign will impact the buying habits in the 18-25 demographic."

Then they go and turn it into an adjective: "That was the most impactful ad campaign we ever ran."

Just another way in which the business and advertising communities spread their evil across the globe.

(shudders)

[xochitl42]

|recovering from an apoplectic, frothing fit|

Please, never use impact as a verb or adjective again. Check out gnomi's "Tuesday Rambly Bits"--aside from the appositives, note my comments there. :)

[gryphonrose]

Relax--he was only showing why he hated it. :)

[xochitl42]

Yes, but now you know what triggers me. Incognitiously or not. :P